Discovery cancels ‘Dirty Jobs’ with Mike Rowe

Discovery is cleaning up. After the cable network decided last week to cancel American Choppers, the network decided to pull the plug on another long-running series, Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs.

Rowe himself broke the news in a piece for The Huffington Post, in which he told fans that the network gave him the news a few weeks ago. “A few weeks ago, I was officially informed that Dirty Jobs had entered into a new phase. One I like to call, "permanent hiatus." Or in the more popular industry vernacular, canceled,” he wrote.

“My first instinct was to immediately pass the news on to you, but frankly, it's taken me a few weeks to digest,” he continued. “Dirty Jobs is a very personal show, and it's difficult for me to imagine a future that does not involve exploding toilets, venomous snakes, misadventures in animal husbandry, and feces from every species. Nevertheless, the future is here, and while it does not appear to contain any more Dirty Jobs, it will almost certainly include another Thanksgiving. So in the spirit of the holiday, I'd like to thank those people most responsible for reinvigorating my erstwhile career, and launching the most honest show in the history of reality TV.”

Rowe went on to thank several people, including the producers and the show’s fans. “...The people who watched Dirty Jobs turned out to be far more curious than your average channel surfer,” he said.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the series began in 2003. In each episode, Rowe would learn how some of the dirtiest jobs in the country are done. That premise remained true through the end.

“The last episode looked pretty much like the first,” he added. “We didn’t become something we weren’t. We never shared the sewer with Paris Hilton, and we never invited you to ‘tune in next week for a very special Dirty Jobs.’ We stuck to the mission statement. We stayed small. We worked hard. And we had a hell of a good time. It was as they say, a very good run.”

This news comes just days after the network cancelled another popular reality series, American Chopper.